Public looks again at trees

GLENDALE — City officials who endured a firestorm of criticism over how Glendale’s newly fortified Indigenous Tree Ordinance was enforced against a handful of homeowners last year are preparing for series of public input meetings that will kick off Wednesday.

The meetings, which the City Council requested in December, will solicit ideas on how to modify the ordinance, or determine if residents want it, said Public Works Director Steve Zurn, whose department oversees a major portion of the ordinance’s administration.

“That will certainly be a central question, if residents even want the ordinance,” he said.

If so, city officials will be at the meetings to take down suggestions on how it could be changed to better reflect public sentiment, he said.

Broad community support for the beefed-up protections that were adopted in March 2007 gave way late last year to widespread criticism of the ordinance after reports surfaced of several fines to homeowners totaling more than $500,000.

Intense regional public and media scrutiny prompted the city to scrap almost all of the fines, impose a temporary moratorium on fine collection and prepare a set of draft changes to the tree ordinance in December.

“A lot of things occurred that we couldn’t anticipate, and unfortunately they were negative,” Zurn said.

Part of the flaw, city officials told the council, was in the administration of the restitution formula, which charges violators a fee amount equal to twice the value of the damaged trees. In issuing the steep fines, city administrators said they were simply sticking to the formula approved by the council.

City Council members, having received the brunt of the criticism, admonished city managers for not alerting them of the large fines before mailing them out to homeowners, and instead voting on proposed safeguards, directed staff to hold a series of public input meetings to make sure their next step would meet what residents wanted.

Some of those residents, arguing the ordinance was an intrusion on private-property rights, called for the city to do away with the tree protections altogether — an idea that drew tentative interest from Mayor Ara Najarian.